Washington Redskins Training Camp Profile: Kirk Cousins

By Lucas Carreras

Ron Schwane-USA TODAY Sports

While many within the Metro-Washington, D.C. area are fixated on whether or not franchise quarterback Robert Griffin III will be back from his ACL tear suffered in the Wildcard Playoff loss to the Seattle Seahawks, what’s being lost is the fact that his backup, Kirk Cousins, can do a good job for the Washington Redskins.

Cousins came into the Week 14 game against the Baltimore Ravens to lead the Redskins to a game tying touchdown drive and two-point conversion, and then on the game winning field goal drive. The following week, Cousins started against the Cleveland Browns and threw for 329 yards and had two touchdown passes in a 38-21 win.

While Cousins struggled in the playoff game against the Seahawks, his play in the time he was asked to come in proved that he was more than capable of running the offense.

Coming into the offseason organized team activities (OTAs), while Griffin has spent his time rehabbing and answering a multitude of questions about how he and the team handled his injury situation at the end of last season, Cousins has been hard at work taking snaps with the first team offense.

In OTAs, Cousins has even been working on learning to run the pistol offense, a formation which the Redskins had only reserved running with RG III.

While it is possible, and almost certain at this point, that Griffin will be the Week 1 starter, that has not stopped Cousins from approaching OTAs like there is no possibility of this happening. The attitude and approach Cousins has taken to his preparation speak to why he was able to step in last season and the offense did not have a drop in performance in the absence of Griffin.

When Mike Shanahan decided to draft Cousins with the 102nd overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft after having already drafted his franchise quarterback in the first round, many speculated why he did so. Luckily for him, Cousins proved to be a valuable pick filling in and serving as the ideal backup quarterback and will do so again if called upon to play in 2013.

Lucas Carreras is a contributing San Francisco 49ers and NFL writer for RantSports.com. You can follow Lucas on Twitter by following him @maldini3fan and you can also add him to your circle on Google+.